paul flannery

The Three-Pointer: A few bright spots for Celtics

For nine minutes on Sunday night, the Celtics played some of their best basketball since the All-Star break. The ball moved crisply from side to side and from player to player. Good shots were passed up for great shots and the defense was humming.

And then the rest of the game happened.

Those nine minutes at the start of the Celtics 85-82 win at Minnesota (click here for a recap) combined with a close-out effort that was good enough but hardly great allowed them to get a much-needed win.

That’s the good news. The bad news is that most of the problems that have plagued the Celtics over the last few weeks, particularly an offense that can’t get out of its own way, continued to manifest themselves.

To be sure there were some bright spots, such as the play of Delonte West who was subbing for an injured Rajon Rondo and the continued effort of Kevin Garnett who has done more than any other player to break this team out of their slump. Nenad Krstic even got a couple of dunks in the second half, which has to help his eroding confidence.

The Celtics will take all that, and they will happily move on from Minnesota with the win in their back pocket. They remain two games behind the Bulls for first place in the Eastern Conference and have a game in the loss column over the Heat for second place. Keeping distance between themselves and Miami may be the more realistic goal with just three weeks left before the playoffs begin.

But on a night when they shot 40 percent and scored 85 points against a team that allows their opponents to shoot over 46 percent and gives up a league-high 107 points and was playing without Kevin Love … there’s obviously still work to be done.

“Wins are great,” Celtics coach Doc Rivers said to reporters in Minnesota after the game. “The first quarter would be our blueprint. Then after that we didn’t play very well.”

Rivers was upset by the defense in the third quarter when they allowed the Wolves to score 28 points and shoot 10-for-17. Considering Minnesota scored just 54 points in the other three quarters and shot 20-for-53, he has a point. But he is also concerned with the offense, and again, that’s where the problems lie with this team.

Rivers said that he counted 20 straight possessions where his team didn’t post the ball and that led to long jump shots and contested 3-pointers. Even when the 3’s were open, they weren’t falling (4-for-15) and that’s when you go to something else.

Still, considering the week this team has had, losing this game would have bordered on a catastrophe, and there were at least two bright spots to build from:

Rajon Rondo tweaked his injured pinky during the Bobcats game on Friday and he said at practice on Saturday that it is bothering him. It made sense to sit him down for at least one game -- if not more – and the Celtics are fortunate that Delonte West was ready to pick up the slack.

The Wolves began the game by going under screens on high pick and rolls and West buried a couple of jumpers. That forced Minnesota to adjust and when they hedged, West was able to get the ball to the open man, which led to all that wonderful ball movement.

“He set the table for us,” Rivers said. “He’s so tough. I don’t know how you describe his game. He’s a hell of a player and you’re happy he’s on your basketball team because he’ll win you games.”

West scored eight points and had five assists in a steady 30-minute performance, but it was his offensive rebound among four Minnesota players that helped seal the victory. That’s the kind of tangible intangible that West brings to this team and it was good sign that his injured ankle seemed to respond favorably.

If the Celtics are going to do anything in the postseason, they will need Rondo to get his quirky groove back, but for one night West was able to pull them through.

Lost in the struggles and the trials and tribulations is one enormous positive: Kevin Garnett is still playing very good basketball. Like the rest of the Celtics, Garnett’s production has tailed off a bit in the last 10 games or so, but that has more to do with one bad shooting night when he went 4-for-19 against the Clippers and a slight reduction in minutes.

Other than that Garnett has continued to be a rock, especially on the boards where he piled up 13 rebounds. He also made a conscious effort to continue to move the ball. Garnett finished with five assists and he is one of the few players on the team where the ball doesn’t stick when it gets to him.

Late in the game he also took it upon himself to get down to the block and he scored two huge baskets to help them come away with the win.

If there is one major difference between this year’s March swoon and last season’s, it’s that Garnett is obviously healthy and playing well. That, more than anything, is reason for optimism.

Paul Pierce did not have a good night, despite his solid line of 23 points and seven rebounds. He made only 6-of-16 shots and was 2-for-8 from 3-point range. He also turned it over six times. This is part of an ongoing struggle for Pierce. Since February, he has attempted 97 shots from behind the arc and made just 25 of them.

But when the game was one the line he made several big plays, including completing a three-point play that put the Celtics ahead for good. In all he scored seven points in the final 3:26 and without that offensive jolt there’s no telling how this game would have played out.

Pierce’s struggles have been in line with the rest of the team’s, although his long-range shooting difficulties have been more pronounced. The team’s assists are down over the last two months and that has created the need for more isolation plays and contested jumpers.

That’s the biggest reason for their collective offensive slide. Whether it’s been less ball movement overall, fewer opportunities created by Rondo or a combination of both, the Celtics are having to work too hard for good looks and the results are in the tumbling shooting percentages and the low amount of points on the scoreboard.

Pierce’s night was fairly emblematic of those issues, but winning helps hide a multitude of problems. The Celtics can take that win – and the blueprint of that furious opening quarter – and take it into their biggest nemesis: a back-to-back Monday night in Indiana against a Pacers team that is holding on for dear life to the final playoff spot.

It’s not much, but it’s definitely a solid start to this treacherous four-game road trip.

Flannery joins Mut to break down the Isaiah Thomas trade to Boston and what it means for the Celtics this season and in the future. Paul also chats with Mut about the other deals that happened at the NBA's trading deadline

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